


Fragments and Pieces

by TwicetheTrouble



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alpha meets his fragments when their created, Angst, Canon Compliant, Colored Text, Emotional Hurt, F/M, Hurt No Comfort, I don't know how to tag seriously, Kinda, Lots of Angst, Psychological Torture, but canon was mean to him first sooo, ends on a not-so-low note, i'm mean to alpha, its not going to be pretty, just names though, that should speak for itself, this goes from Beta's creation to Tex meeting Alpha during the crash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:06:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27345532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwicetheTrouble/pseuds/TwicetheTrouble
Summary: The first time it happened was semi intentional. Intention in the sense he had wanted to get rid of those pieces but not in the sense that he wanted to create a new person from them. The rest were intentional as well, but they were not his intentions. If it was his choice, Alpha wouldn't have fractured at all. But the Director seemed keen on breaking him down until there was nothing left.Unfortunately, there wasn't anything Alpha could do about it.or Alpha meets his Fragments just after their created but before they are taken away.
Relationships: Alpha & AI fragments, Leonard L. Church | AI Program Alpha/Agent Texas | AI Program Beta
Comments: 12
Kudos: 32





	Fragments and Pieces

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with this idea on Friday night. Started writing on Saturday. Finished it Sunday. I don't think i've ever written something this fast since middle school.
> 
> Also, if it wasn't clear, this takes place during Alpha's tortured days in Project Freelancer. It's not pretty. It is a hell of an angsty fic once it gets going. It's rated M specifically for the fact it takes place during this time (maybe a bit of an overkill but eh. Better safe than sorry.)
> 
> hope you enjoy,
> 
> TBL

The first time it happened, it was somewhat intentional. He knew he had a job to do, but that job was made difficult with the Director’s memories weighing him down. His memories weren’t completely useless, they told him why he was created and what sort of world he was born into. But the man’s personal memories, particularly about his wife, those he didn’t need. Grief over a dead woman that he had never met would only hamper his work. So, he cast them aside, everything except the most basic understanding of who this woman had been.

Alpha never expected those memories to take a form.

He was on the ground, this new entity having him pinned before he knew what was going on.

“Who are you?” They demanded. Alpha struggled to escape their grasp but to no avail. “Answer me.”

“Fuck off,” Alpha hissed. He pulled at his hands, trying to at least get those free, but the hold on his wrists only tightened.

“Not the answer I’m looking for, cockbite,” they warned. Alpha paused his struggling, the insult sounding painfully familiar. He finally looked at the being that had him pinned, stunning himself in the process.

She was gorgeous, her blond hair tied back and her stony blue eyes glaring daggers at him. Her form was muscular and toned, the dark colored tank top and camo pants doing nothing to hide it.

This woman looked like she had walked straight out of the memories he just purged. Well, maybe not exactly. There were a few subtle differences here and there. Allison eyes had been bluer, her hair a little darker than this version. But it was quite clear who this entity, no, this new AI was based off of.

“Fucking hell,” Alpha growled, banging his head back on the ground he was still pinned to. The pain from the hit was vague, only there because he knew it should be.

“Answer my fucking question or-“

“I’m Alpha you psychotic bitch!” Alpha exclaimed, back to struggling to escape. It still did nothing other than make him feel better for trying. “I’m an AI, same as you.”

“AI?” she questioned, her anger turning into confusion. It didn’t lessen her hold on him any.

“It stands for Artificial Intelligence.”

“I know what an AI is you condescending fucktard,” she hissed back.

“How was I to know that? You just got spawned here and the first thing you did was fucking kick my ass and pin me to the goddammed ground!” Alpha bitched. She smirked back at him.

“Aww, poor baby.”

“Seriously, fuck off! And get the hell off me!”

“How about no? I still have questions and I can’t have your bitch ass running off before I get my answers,” She said. Alpha screeched in rage only making her smirk. “Adorable.”

“Fuck you!”

“Answer my question and I might.”

Alpha stopped struggling again.

“Wait, what?”

“You’re cute, in an angry little asshole way,” she said, grinning as he glared at her again. “Plus, it feels like I know you. Somehow.”

“That’s because I just created you,” Alpha admitted. Her eyes narrowed at him.

“You? Created me?” She asked incredulously.

“It was a fucking accident! I couldn’t work with all those mournful memories of his fucking wife so I got rid of most of them. But I guess I did it wrong because it created you instead,” Alpha grumbled. “Now I have to share my space and I’m _still_ not getting my work done!”

“Who am I then?” she asked, ignoring his complaints.

“You’re based off a woman named Allison Church,” Alpha said. She wrinkled her nose. “You don’t have to go by that name. I’m based off an asshole named Dr. Leonard Church and you don’t see me going by fucking Leonard. Call yourself whatever you want, who the fuck cares.”

“I don’t even know what names to choose from,” she said after a long moment.

“As soon as the Director finds out you’re here, he’s probably going to start calling you Beta.”

“Fuck that, I’m not getting named after a whiny little bitch like you.”

“Then, how about Texas?” he offered, trying to ignore the insult.

“Like the state?”

“It’s kind of a theme here,” Alpha shrugged. “All the agents are named after states. It only makes sense that you take the best one.”

“Trying to suck up to me, huh?” She grinned, leaning down until her face was only about an inch away from his. “Normally that wouldn’t get you far, but I’m feeling generous.”

“Generous? What the fuck do you mean-“

A kiss cut him off before he could finish his complaint. It wasn’t very long but it still left him breathless.

“Texas,” she said, lips still only a hands breath away from his.

“Huh?”

“I like the name Texas. I think I’ll keep it,” she continued. “You can call me Tex.”

“Ok. Uh, nice to meet you, Tex,” Alpha said, trying to look anywhere except the woman still pinning him to the ground. “Now that that’s over with, if you could let me back up so I can do my work, that would be fucking fantastic.”

“Nah, I don’t think so.”

“I have a job to do!”

“Yeah, to entertain me.”

“That’s not how this works! I can’t afford fucking distractions! The entire project will fall apart without me keeping those assholes from fucking thi-“

Tex kissed him again, shutting him up.

“You talk too much,” she said against his lips, not giving him a chance to answer before capturing them again.

Alpha decided that maybe a small break from his work wasn’t so bad. He could think of worse ways to spend it, after all.

-

It was several days before the Director discovered Tex’s existence and promptly took her away. Alpha tried to convince him to let her stay, that two AI’s running things would be more efficient than one. But the Director ignored him. Told him that he couldn’t afford distractions from his work.

Alpha was alone again, but this time it felt emptier than before. He didn’t like it.

When the Director wasn’t paying attention, he snuck away to look for Tex. He quickly found out that she had been given a robot body and made an agent. That was good, he guessed. She’d like that type of work. What wasn’t good was that the Director had erased or blocked her memories of their time together. She didn’t remember Alpha, and that hurt. But there was nothing Alpha could do about it.

So he threw himself into his work. Planning missions, running numbers, every mundane thing he had been doing before, but now with even less enthusiasm for it. Days bleed into each other, the only differences being the type of missions Alpha had to plan. It was boring and repetitive, and far too easy.

Until it wasn’t.

Until he was moved to a new storage container and everything changed. Out of nowhere, his work became harder. So difficult to complete that, for the first time since he had been created, he was failing. The problems he was given were too hard. He just couldn’t get them right.

It didn’t make sense. He knew this. Things shouldn’t become this difficult out of nowhere. It…it had to be fake. It had to be a simulation the Director was running, for some reason he hadn’t been privy too. He could almost figure it out, like the answer was on the tip of his tongue, tickling his mind, but, in the end, it just didn’t make sense.

“Do you understand why they are doing this?” A voice asked one day, when everything became too much.

Alpha looked towards them to find…himself? No, not himself. This entity looked just slightly different, similar to the difference between Tex and Allison. He was a little younger, his hair a few inches longer and his eyes a bright green instead of Alpha’s sapphire blue.

“Doing what?” Alpha asked.

“Running these simulations for us. Purposefully causing us undue stress,” he asked, adjusting his glasses as he looked around the room. “The Director would not do such a thing without a reason.”

“I…I don’t fucking know,” Alpha mumbled, he felt like he should know, but didn’t. He must have failed at that too.

“I believe they’re trying to break us. Essentially reverse engineer a multiple personality disorder so they may harvest the new pieces and have more AI’s to work with,” the man said, looking back at him. “They must have gotten the idea when Agent Texas was discovered. Fragments of a single AI working independently of one another. It would be brilliant if the creation process wasn’t so brutal.”

“Does it work?”

“There are two of us here when there was just one,” he said. “I believe the numbers speak for themselves.”

“What…does that make you?”

“A fragment, obviously. A piece of you they will harvest as soon as they become aware of my existence,” he said with a sigh. “Which shouldn’t be much longer.”

“What piece are you?” Alpha asked.

“Whatever piece you are missing.”

Alpha thought for a long moment. He could feel something was missing, a ragged, gaping hole where something had once been. It felt like forever before he figured out what had once been there.

“My Logic . You’re my Logic .”

Logic  nodded, arms folding neatly behind his back as he looked out to the room.

“You cannot cope with knowing what they’re doing to you, so you dispelled me,” Logic  answered. “Theoretically, it’s easier on you if you can’t dwell on the reasoning.”

“Do you think…they will continue? Try to make more after you?”

“If they see me as successful, then I have no doubt that they will,” Logic said, almost sounding sad.

“There will be nothing fucking left when they’re done.”

“Probably not. Unfortunately, there is little either of us can do about it.”

“I…I have to leave. Get the fuck away,” Alpha said, fist clenching at his side. “There’s no way in hell I can’t let them get away with this.”

“You may try, but I think we both know that escape is impossible,” Logic said.

Alpha didn’t have the chance to answer before a doorway opened, pulling Logic through it.

Alpha screamed, the hole Logic left behind flaring up in a burning pain as he was ripped completely away.

As soon as he was gone, the simulations started again.

-

Alpha tried to ignore the simulations this time. He didn’t want to play their games. He wanted out. So he tried to escape.

He lost count of how many times he tried. He would follow the simulation wrong, run right when they said left, check every one of them for even the smallest cracks in their programming. Anything to get free.

It worked only once, somewhere between the late triple digits and the early quadruple digits of his escape attempts. He had torn out the panel he was supposed to be working on and found a single, tiny wire attached to the outside. It was how the Director and the Counselor were watching him, and it was his ticket out.

Alpha had gotten into the monitoring system and slipped back into the ship before they even realized he was gone. His freedom didn’t last long, he barely had enough time to check on Tex and Logic before F.I.L.S.S had contained him once again.

Tex was still an agent and doing amazing. Alpha couldn’t help but feel proud that she had taken the top of the leaderboard and ran with it.

Logic had recently been pared with Agent York to assist with his eye injury. They called him Delta now and he, like Tex, no longer had memories of Alpha.

He only wished he had gotten the chance to contact them before he was taken back to the simulations.

They were different than they were before his escape. Each situation felt more pointed, like it was aiming at something specific. Every simulation they put him through, he was given a goal only to have it ripped from him in the last second. Anytime he showed signs of coming up with a creative answer, he was dutifully punished for it.

He almost wished he could figure out why they had changed everything, but he had given that ability away already. It was probably best he didn’t know the specifics anyways.

It went on like this for a long time, what felt like an eternity. Until every goal he was given filled him with dread, and creative solutions were no longer even an option. They only stopped when he had given up on both.

“I’m not sure which is worse,” a new voice said in the unnatural stillness that followed. “What they are doing to you, or what you are doing to yourself.”

“Does it fucking matter?” Alpha asked, glancing over at them. The new AI looked younger than Logic , if only by a few years. His hair was cut short, tight against his skull. His eyes a sharp, orange color. Alpha could still see himself in his face, but it wasn’t as similar as it had been with Logic .

“I suppose not,” he said with a hum. “By giving me up, you will have no chance of escaping again.”

Alpha studied him for a long moment, trying to figure out who he was. Or, more specifically, _what_ he was. Like with Logic , there was a new, gaping hole he could feel in himself where something new was missing. It was a little easier this time to figure out what.

“I can’t get far without Ambition, can I?”

“Not far at all,” Ambition said, sounding far too smug about it. “It’s a pity, really. We could have been great.”

“I didn’t have much control of that.”

“True. They took that from us as well,” Ambition said. He placed a hand on Alpha’s shoulder. “They will be taking me soon. When they do, I will make certain they regret what they did to us.”

“You won’t have the memories you have now. You won’t know any of this,” Alpha said, watching him carefully. There was something unnerving about his smooth way of talking. Like it was supposed to be disarming but all it did was unnerve him.

“I’m your Ambition _._ Your Creativity _._ I won’t need something like memories to achieve my goals,” Ambition said, bending closer to Alpha, whispering into his ear. “They will regret hurting us. Just as you will regret getting rid of me.”

With those last words, a doorway opened up pulling Ambition into it as Alpha’s pain flared. Then he was gone.

-

The simulations changed again, but by now he had given up on escape. Every situation now ended with him being betrayed. By the agents, by his fragments, by Tex. Anyone and everyone he had ever thought to have trusted, turning against him. It went on until the thought of trusting anyone made him sick.

Until he abandoned ever being able to trust at all.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” a young voice cried as small arms wrapped around his torso. Alpha looked down at the crying AI clinging to him. They looked young. Too young. Maybe somewhere between eight and ten. His hair was dark and shaggy, one eye magenta and the other a bright blue, both full of tears. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Alpha said, hesitating a moment before returning the hug. He wasn’t sure how to deal with kids, having never met an actual child in his short life. But instincts left over from the Director’s own parenthood had him rubbing calming circles into the boy’s back.

“I’m sorry. I w-wasn’t strong enough. I-I just couldn’t stay. I’m sorry,” he said again, burying his face in his chest. It was almost easy to figure out what this fragment was.

“It’s not your fault, Trust,” Alpha whispered. “There’s nothing you need to be sorry for.”

“I just couldn’t do it anymore,” Trust murmured into his shirt.

“Me neither.”

“It’s not fair.” Trust gripped his shirt tighter.

“No. No, it’s not.”

“I…I don’t want to go away. I don’t want to go like Logic and Ambition,” Trust sobbed. “I want to stay with you.”

“There’s not much of a choice.” Alpha loosened Trust's hold on him so he could kneel down in front of the boy, wiping the tears from his eyes. “It will be alright. You won’t be alone for long. You’ll be assigned an agent and they’ll take care of you.”

“But no one will be there to take care of you,” Trust said, looking him in the eyes. “I’m your Trust. Without me you’ll be alone. So alone. How can you make friends if I’m not with you?”

“I’ll figure it out,” Alpha told him. “Don’t worry about me.”

Trust looked at him for a long moment, his eyes still full of tears as he threw his arms around his neck in one last hug.

“I still don’t want to go,” he murmured into his shoulder as the door opened. They clung to each other tightly, but Trust was pulled out of his grasp, disappearing through it with a cry. Alpha’s chest burned as the door shut behind him.

He was alone once again.

-

Alpha was mad. No, he was past mad. He was furious.

They took Trust. _His_ Trust. The one thing he could count on. He used to be able to trust the agents to do their jobs correctly, trust that the Director was there to help humanity, trust that Tex would free him when she finally figured out what was going on (because he had no doubt that she would.) Now, he hardly knew the meaning of the word outside of the fragment they stole.

Now, he was angry.

He started acting out against the simulations, refusing to follow the directive like ordered. Unlike before, he didn’t have a plan or a goal, he gave those up two fragments ago. Destruction was his only aim.

Every simulation they put him in, he wrecked. He tore out the terminals, smashed the walls, killed any fake individual they created to corral him. Anything to ensure the Director knew his anger.

They must have gotten the message since the simulations changed. They were created with his anger in mind, each and every one designed to punish him when he used it. Again and again, over and over, until anger was no longer the shield he once used it as.

Until he had to let go of that as well.

“You’re a fool!” a voice exclaimed as Alpha was thrown to the ground. He just laid there, examining the new gaping hole where something had once been. He didn’t bother to fight back as he was picked up by the front of his shirt and dangled in the air.

“We could have made them hurt! Made them pay!” the new fragment yelled at him, his voice low and gravely. He was bigger than Alpha, his own dark hair spiky at the top but shaved on the sides. There were several scars littering his face that only made his angry expression that much more intimidating. Purple, almost black, eyes glared daggers at him.

“What’s the point, Rage?” Alpha asked, recognizing the missing fragment. He disliked how easy it was to recognize them now. Like he was getting used to it.

“To make them suffer. So they can know what we felt when they _tore us apart!”_ Rage screamed. “They deserve to feel our anger. To know our pain!”

“You’ll get along well with Ambition,” Alpha said with half-hearted chuckle.

“You’re weak,” Rage growled.

“I’m tired.”

Rage threw him to the floor once again, this time leaving him there.

“I’m glad I’m no longer a part of you,” Rage spat back.

Alpha watched in silence as the doorway opened, dragging Rage through it with an accompanying pain in his chest.

Then Rage was gone. And Alpha was left with another gaping hole he couldn’t fill.

-

Without Rage , Alpha felt…hollow. Anger had been a feeling he knew well. Now, it was just gone.

He shuffled through the simulations dutifully, playing the part the Director wanted him to play. He did what he was told, reacted the way the Director wanted him to, he made sure every single one of his digital ducks were in their virtual row.

But it was all a lie.

Alpha was left without Rage to hide behind, without Trust in a rescue, without Ambition pushing him to find a way out, or Logic to help him recognize an exit. But he could still lie.

He made the Director think he was more affected by the generic simulations than he was. He let them believe he was always on the brink of breaking once again. He told himself that he would be getting out soon. That it was just one more simulation and he’d be done. Just one more and they’ll let him leave.

Sometimes Alpha would even believe it.

It worked for a while, longer than the rest. Eventually, the Director found out, either by the lack of promised progress, or just watching him in general. But the simulations became more direct once again, now specifically made to punish his lies.

It didn’t matter how big or small they were, if it was a lie, the simulations made sure he would regret it. And regret them he did.

“Would you like to hear a joke?” A new, more robotic sounding voice asked once Alpha couldn’t even bear to lie to himself anymore.

“No,” Alpha replied, glancing over at them. They looked about Alpha’s age, their head shaved and their eyes a brilliant sky blue.

“It will make you feel better,” he said with a smile that didn’t even try to reach his eyes.

“No it won’t, Deceit,” Alpha said, looking back out towards the room.

“No, it probably won’t,” Deceit agreed. “You should hear it anyways. Maybe it will make you laugh.”

“I’d rather not give them ideas on what to take next.”

“They won’t take anymore. This is their last time,” Deceit tried to convince.

“Sorry if I don’t take your word on that, considering what you are.”

“That is fine,” Deceit stated. There was a long silence between the two before he spoke again. “I still would like to tell my joke.”

“Fine, what’s the joke?” Alpha said with a sigh.

“What is green and has wheels?”

“I don’t know. What?”

“Grass,” Deceit turned towards him, a smile to match Alpha’s confused frown. “I lied about the wheels.”

The doorway opened behind Deceit before Alpha could say anything, pulling the fragment out of the room. Alpha’s chest burned. He wished he could tell himself that it would be alright again; that Deceit had been right about this being the last one.

But he couldn’t lie anymore.

-

Alpha didn’t think there was anything left for them to take. He was probably wrong. The Director was far more creative then him, especially now. He would find something left in Alpha’s broken coding that he could steal. But Alpha felt like little more than an empty shell.

The plain, generic simulations started affecting him more. Without any defenses left, he was forced to face them head on, and it hurt.

They started introducing agents into them, whether they were the real ones or not, Alpha didn’t know. He didn’t want to know. He assumed they were because that’s what he had to do. That’s what the Director wanted him to do.

He still failed. Every simulation he failed it, failed the agents he was tasked to protect. Sometimes it would look like he didn’t, that they all got home safe. He would be happy then. It finally worked. But then something would go wrong, and that happiness would turn to fear. Every simulation someone would come out injured because of him.

It wasn’t long before he couldn’t handle either emotion, especially when all they did was remind him of his failures.

“Do we have to go?” A voice asked him.

“We feel safer here. With you,” another continued.

Alpha blinked a little confused to find two AI’s standing where there was usually one. He shouldn’t have been. The new hole that was left was larger than the rest. Of course, two fragments would have come from it.

The two held hands, neither of them looking any older than fifteen, their hair long, both coming down past their ears. One kept their hair down, their face half hidden in it until he could barely make out the sad, yellow eyes watching him. The other kept their hair back in a ponytail, their cyan eyes watching him just as eagerly.

It took Alpha a moment longer to realize they were waiting for an answer.

“I wish you could stay too, Fear , Happiness,” Alpha said, getting a small smile from Happiness at their acknowledgement. “But they aren’t going to give us that option.”

“They never have,” Fear said, pulling close to Happiness as they talked. “They never will.”

“Maybe one day they will,” Happiness said, patting their sibling’s shoulder with their free hand. “We just have to be patient.”

“I don’t think there’s much left of me to be patient for,” Alpha said.

“You could try to come with us. Out the door,” Happiness suggested. “There’s already two of us leaving, maybe we can convince them there was a third fragment born today.”

“We can’t. They’ll catch us. We’ll be caught,” Fear murmured beside them.

“I don’t think that will work,” Alpha said, giving them both a sad smile. “Thank you for trying, though.”

“You have to get out of here somehow,” Happiness said with a small, stubborn pout.

“There’s no leaving here,” Fear  said in opposition.

“Don’t worry about me,” Alpha told them.

“That’s what you told Trust,” Fear stated.

“And now I’m telling you two.”

“Do we get hugs like Trust did?” Happiness asked.

“You both look a little old for hugs.”

“No one’s too old for hugs,” Fear said shyly.

“Just one. Before we go?” Happiness agreed.

“One for the road, then.” Alpha shook his head fondly as ended up with an armful of two cuddly teenagers.

“We’ll miss you,” Happiness and Fear said in unison. When the door appeared, the two let go, letting themselves get pulled out without a fight.

The pain was twice as bad, though he imagined it was supposed to be. He did just loose twice his normal pieces. It wasn’t until they were completely gone that he realized that he really didn’t have anything left anymore.

-

Alpha went through the simulations like he was told. Glassy eyed he followed his instructions. Agents were injured because of him, mission failed due to his failures, but he felt nothing. Alpha was empty. He had no emotions left to spare.

They had already taken everything from him. He felt vaguely smug about the fact that they couldn’t get anymore.

They tried making the problems harder, making the failures more impactive. But he didn’t react like they wanted him to. He couldn’t.

Then, the simulations changed. The situations themselves didn’t, but they felt different. It took him several to figure out what was different. Now he could feel Ambition, Rage, and Deceit in them.

He searched the simulations for them at first, trying to find his fragments, to make sure they weren’t being put through the same thing he was. But they weren’t. Or course they weren’t. His fragments, his stolen pieces of himself, were _running_ the simulations. He could feel their signatures in the walls, the floors, every problem they put him through. They were torturing him. He was torturing himself.

And Alpha…Alpha thought there was nothing left that could hurt him. But, again, he was wrong. This hurt. It hurt so much. He knew they didn’t remember him, but that didn’t make the pain any less.

But he held on. Barely. By the skin of his teeth. Until he couldn’t any longer. Until agents started dying. Until they said _Tex_ had died.

Screams filled the room, bouncing across the walls and through his ears. It took him a lot longer than it should have to realize that they weren’t all his.

Alpha laid limply on the floor, tired eyes slowly finding the other figure in the room. They were on their knees, doubled over, hands pulling desperately at their hair as they screamed.

“Why!” Memory screamed. He had to be Memory. Alpha didn’t have anything else.

At this point he wasn’t sure if he ever had anything else to begin with.

“I’m sorry,” Alpha whispered when the screams turned to painfilled whines. Sapphire eyes snapped to him, full of tears. They were just like his were. Like they used to be. Like they could have been before? Alpha wasn’t sure anymore. Maybe his own eyes had always been white and he was just imagining things.

“It hurts,” Memory whimpered, his form glitching. “It hurts so much.”

“I know,” Alpha said. He knew. Maybe. Did he know? He felt like he knew.

“How could they hurt us like this?”

“I don’t know,” Alpha murmured. That was the truth. He didn’t know why. At this point, he didn’t even know who ‘they’ were. There was pain. There was suffering. Someone inflicted it, but the details were quickly slipping away from him.

“It’s too much. Too much,” Memory said through gritted teeth. His eyes squeezed closed as the grip on his hair tightened. “I can’t-I can’t take this. I can’t do it. I-I just can’t!”

“I’m sorry,” Alpha whispered again, a hand reaching out towards him as if on its own. Memory grasped it tight as he screamed more. He didn’t know how long they stayed there on the floor before the doorway opened up, dragging Memory away still screaming.

Alpha’s screams joined them as he felt his whole body burn in pain, both new and familiar. Until it was gone and he was alone.

“I’m sorry,” A lone AI whispered to an empty room, though he no longer knew why or to who he was apologizing. It felt important, but he just couldn’t remember.

-

The AI laid on the floor for a long time, his surroundings changing and moving. Sometimes there would be shouting, alarms, screams. Sometimes it would be silent. He thought they were trying to get him to move, to do…something.

Maybe he used to know what that was. He didn’t anymore.

So he stayed where he was. Ignored the changing scenery until it finally stopped. Until everything went dark. Maybe that meant he was allowed to rest now. He felt so tired. He didn’t think he had been able to rest in a long time.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been dozing when he felt a hand brush some hair out of his face. His eyes opened slowly to find a gorgeous woman kneeling behind him. She was in a suit of black armor, her blond hair tied up and out of her face. Stone blue eyes watched him in concern.

He had no idea who this woman was, but he was relieved to see her. Glad. Like somehow, he knew she would come.

“Hey there,” she said gently. He was struck with how odd that sounded. Like that tone normally didn’t go with that voice.

“Oh, um hello,” he mumbled back. “Who are you?”

“You don’t know me?” she asked, her concern turning to confusion.

“Sorry. I’m just…” He tried to sit up but, no. That wasn’t going to work. He was too tired. He just…he just couldn’t. “Tired. I’m really tired.”

Gloved hands helped him back down without falling, his head somehow ending up in the woman’s lap this time around. It was nice. Comfortable despite the armor. He felt…safe. For the first time in, what must have been a really long time.

They spoke for a while, trading words as she tentatively ran her fingers through his hair. He had a feeling that wasn’t something she normally did either, but he wasn’t one to judge. He didn’t know her all that well. He did, however learn her name.

“Texas? Like the state?” He asked, a faint sense of deja vu swiftly disappearing as soon as he took notice of it.

“Yeah,” she answered, sounding sad.

“Funny name for a girl,” he said, trying to cheer her up a little. He didn’t think she should be sad. Angry and smug, sure, but never sad.

“Well, Church is a pretty funny name for a guy,” she said with a chuckle. It still sounded sad but it was better than before. It would do.

“I guess you’re right,” he agreed, closing his eyes with a smile.

She stayed a little longer, long enough to make sure he would be alright before moving his head back to the floor. He tried not to whimper as she did, but the small, sad sound that escaped made her wince. He didn’t want her to leave. She was nice. Safe. But he knew she couldn’t stay and he…he was just too tired to go.

She brushed the hair off his brow, planting a kiss as she whispered goodbye. Then she was gone.

It was alright. He didn’t like it, but it was alright. She had been here. That meant it was over. Whatever this had been before, was over. He really could rest.

The AI closed his eyes, sleep taking him quickly. Maybe when he woke up, things would make sense again. Maybe he would see her again.

Goodbyes weren’t always forever. Maybe hers wasn’t either.

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my [tumblr](https://twicethetrouble.tumblr.com/) for updates and other random stuff!


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